In as much as handset manufacturers are open to platform-type innovation, and software vendors are obviously moving in this direction - it seems obvious that the foot-draggers are the telcom carriers. Their stranglehold over the mobile world seems in direct conflict with efforts to make the most of the mobile user experience - but telcoms are used to being the among the most hated companies on the planet.

To draw an analogy with major record labels and DRM - this is almost the opposite type of situation. The case for mobile openness seems to remain based in hopefulness more than a survival imperative for vendors faced with a market threat.

To draw another analogy - might this be comparable to Comcast telling Mozilla that it can't start Comcast customers who are Firefox users out on Google's search page, that it has to make a Comcast search page the default home page?

While telcom execs will likely get theirs in the afterlife, the rest of us will probably have to keep on wishing - unless 3rd party software becomes the only meaningful means of monetization and major revenue sharing comes about.